84 TWEEDSIDE. 



summer time than formerly, the very natural 

 consequence of this improvement. In great 

 and continued rains it comes down and fills its 

 wonted banks, from brae to brae; but it soon runs 

 off, excepting in the winter months. This, I am 

 afraid, is the real cause of the falling off of fish 

 in the river ; for, I suppose, few districts were 

 ever more improved during the last thirty years 

 than these of Gala and Tweed. The farmers 

 are now up and doing. I remember, in a speech 

 of Sir Robert Peel, I think, while introducing 

 the Corn Laws in 1846, he said, so far as he 

 had information, the land could be made to yield 

 one third more than it then did. Guano and 

 drainage have done much to fulfil this idea; 

 but the manufacturing interests are clapping 

 spurs to the sides of the agriculturists, and they 

 will, in the end, have all the land in their own 

 hands. As the House of Commons obtains more 

 of this element, the entails of land, no doubt, will 

 soon be broken up. Look at the lands I now be- 

 hold opposite, in Ettrick. Can there be much im- 

 provement in nine years' leases ? I say that it is 

 a national loss to have estates so managed. We 

 see now-a-days a great race running between 

 landlordism and merchandise; and, in my opinion, 



